Tuesday, July 26, 2011

"New research suggests that people who have cut the cord aren't doing so because they think Netflix provides a good alternative to their local cable TV company. In fact, those that go broadband-only are only slightly more likely to watch online video than those with pay-TV subscriptions, according to the latest data from Leichtman Research Group."

Well here's a splash of cold reality: many tech blogs, including this one, thought that the people who were at the vanguard of the "cable cutting" movement were still watching TV, they were just shifting where they did it. It turns out, that's not the case: only a small minority of people who cancelled their cable have switched to online viewing. Most people have simply stopped watching TV altogether. That sounds like a more "normal" response to cancelling cable than jumping through the fairly painful hoops (for "regular" people at least) required to watch TV online. I have some fantasies about cutting cable myself, but haven't quite gotten around to figuring out if there are enough online sources for me to do so.

I watch The Daily Show with John Stewart every weekday morning for instance; if I leave iTunes running, does it automatically download the new episode? Or will I have to manually start the download? I get terrible iTunes download performance (well, terrible for a 100mbps Internet connection) so the thought of having to start the download then wait 30 minutes before watching it is frustrating.

Wednesday, February 23, 2011

"After arguing that we need fast and cheap internet to ensure that Canada doesn't get left behind as the world moves towards online video, I figured it was time to actually start testing the waters. What is the state of online video in Canada and is it realistic for a Canadian family to cut the cable?"

Cable cutters. We hear about these mythical people who are freeing themselves from hefty cable bills...but how feasible is it for the average geek to do? Well, it depends on what you're looking for - and where you live. In the USA, there are services and solutions that might make it possible. In Canada? It's a harder problem to solve. Over at The Green Button, Peter Near is trying to do exactly that - and I can probably predict the outcome already...he's not going to find what he wants.

I admire his efforts though, especially since he admitted early on that Bittorent provides everything he wants but doesn't financially compensate the content creators, and so he rejected it. I'm in the same boat. The only time I grab a show off Bittorent is if it's one that my PVR failed to record, and that unfortunately happens more often than I'd like.

Wednesday, October 27, 2010

"Ever wonder if, for just your favorite shows, it might be smarter to get an iTunes or Amazon season pass? Pondering which shows you'd have to give up if you canceled cable? We compiled a big chart of answers for you.... The choosing was totally subjective, although we tried to keep an open mind about popular taste. We included online alternatives including Amazon Video on Demand, iTunes, Hulu and its $9.99/month Hulu Plus service, Netflix (in streaming form only), and network sites often accessible through a site like Clicker.com (and its neat apps on platforms like Boxee)."

If you are thinking about dropping your "Cable TV" service - whether delivered via traditional cable, satellite or fiber - Lifehacker has published a useful chart that lists a fair number of popular television series and whether they can be obtained from various alternative delivery services, and at what cost. This is a popular idea right now, especially with the introduction of Google TV (which is not included in the Lifehacker article) and Sony's Internet TV models. One of the our local newspapers even ran an article this week entitled "Is This the End of Cable?" which provides brief overviews of several "set-top boxes" and the networks they provide access to. Have you tried ditching your cable TV service? And, if so, how well has the experiment worked?

Tuesday, July 13, 2010

"A week or two ago, details of Windows 8 leaked.... The pages that have been posted on various sites are marked 'Windows 8 discussion, this is not a plan of record', so they must be taken as such and not necessarily as what might eventually appear in Windows 8. That said.... one page in particular caught my eye, titled 'Consuming TV in Windows'. The page states 'Our view is that broadcast TV for PCs via tuner cards will be replaced by Internet-sourced TV and broadcast TV via DLNA-connected tuners.'"

It seems too early to get excited about Windows 8 yet, but already some writers appear to be up in arms about the possibility that the Windows 8 Media Center will drop support for broadcast TV tuners in favor of web-based television. Paul Thurrott's SuperSite for Windows provides "A First Peek" at Windows 8 (apparently due in mid-2012), and does mention that it will likely mark a "move away from traditional TV tuners in Windows"; but that statement is open to interpretation, and is hardly in the category of "We will no longer support...!" Do you currently use a broadcast TV tuner in conjunction with Windows Media Center? And, if so, how worried are you about the possibility that eventually, maybe, some day Microsoft will no longer support that functionality?

Thursday, May 14, 2009

"The important lesson to learn when it comes to these competitive services is that the first three - broadcast, cable, and satellite - are all going up in cost to their providers while the cost of providing Internet service is going down. In the USA, broadcast viewership is dropping, which means the cost per viewer is rising. Same for cable where viewers are stagnant, viewership is declining (number of hours of viewing) and the cost of content is rising. Satellite has been growing marginally but that could end at any moment and it shares the same content cost increases as cable. Meanwhile Internet service just gets faster and cheaper thanks to a Moore's Law double whammy."

I always enjoy Cringely's prognostications about the future of technology, and this time he's taking aim at what's going to happen to television - one of his favourite topics. It's funny, I must be one of those odd-ball types who bucks the trend - I watch more TV now than I did a few years ago. I think the landscape in the US will transform faster than it will elsewhere - with all the IP blocking going on with Hulu and similar services, there's no "next-gen" Internet TV service available to me in Canada, and I suspect the same is elsewhere. We'll see what happens, but I've heard that Hulu is having a heck of a time making enough money to offset the costs of streaming the content - its business model is shaky. And until Hulu or services like it are seamlessly integrated into TVs or a set-top box connected to the TV, watching TV in the browser is going to be a uber-geek-only approach.